Topic: AirPort

A recent customer satisfaction survey of home router technologies places Apple comfortably on top of the heap, despite recent reports of the division closing down, and engineers re-assigned to other projects.

Some fear has erupted at the news that Apple may be shutting down development of its own AirPort wireless routers. However, picking a router isn't as complicated as it used to be, and AppleInsider has some suggestions that work well with other Apple hardware.

Apple has apparently disbanded its internal wireless router development team, assigning engineers to other, more lucrative projects within the company, and bringing to an end the development of Apple-branded routers, a new report has revealed.

Although the products are still available online, Apple no longer appears to be selling the AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule in its U.S. retail stores, according to a Friday report and checks by AppleInsider.

Enjoy -- the white-glove delivery service launched by former Apple retail head Ron Johnson -- on Tuesday began sales of two more Apple products, including AirPort routers and the fourth-generation Apple TV.

In response to the Heartbleed kerfuffle, Apple on Tuesday rolled out a firmware update for all 2013 AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule models that protects affected units from the OpenSSL vulnerability.

In a firmware update issued on Thursday, Apple addressed a few minor problems with its newest 802.11ac AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule base stations, including a problem with USB hard drive connectivity.

Apple on Tuesday released a firmware update for all 802.11n-capable AirPort base stations, fixing a number of problems including an issue that prompted some iOS device users to see intermittent Wi-Fi dropouts.

Coming hours after Apple's AirPort Extreme received the teardown treatment, the same was done to the 802.11ac Wi-Fi router's HDD-packing sibling Time Capsule, with results expectedly showing no difference between the two aside from the hard drive and corresponding port.

Apple on Monday announced immediate availability of its next-generation AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule models, each of which feature an all-new "mini tower" design and support for fast 802.11ac wireless.

With Apple rumored to be interested in releasing new Macs with superfast 802.11ac wireless connectivity this year, a new job listing by the company advertises a position for engineers experienced with Gigabit Wi-Fi.

Apple is expected to rapidly deploy support for the new 802.11ac specification this year, adding so called "Gigabit WiFi" to new AirPort base stations, Time Capsule, Apple TV, notebooks and potentially its mobile devices.

Marissa Mayer, Google's Vice President of Location and Local Services, offered a glowing endorsement of Apple's AirPort wireless router products on her Google+ social network page, where she also notes that she uses multiple Apple TV in addition to Google's own set top boxes.